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The Blue Room
Suzanne Valadon · Early Modern (Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism)
- Artist
- Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938)
- Date
- 1923
- Dimensions
- 90 x 116 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Centre Pompidou – Musée national d'art moderne, Paris (on deposit at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Limoges), France
The Blue Room shows a full-figured woman lounging on a bed covered with a blue patterned spread, wearing striped pyjama trousers and a pink camisole, a cigarette dangling from her lips. Two books lie at her feet.
A closer look
The painting is a deliberate answer to the long tradition of the reclining female nude painted by men, from Titian to Manet. Valadon's woman is clothed, relaxed and indifferent to the viewer, absorbed in her own thoughts; she smokes and reads, activities associated with independence. Her solid, unidealised body and the bold patterns of the fabrics are painted with strong contours and bright colours. Valadon, who had herself posed for Renoir, Puvis de Chavannes and Toulouse-Lautrec, here reclaims the female figure from a woman's point of view.
More by Suzanne Valadon
Famous works elsewhere
- Casting the Net 1914
- The Abandoned Doll 1921
- Joy of Life 1911
- Nu au châle bleu 1930
- Portrait of Erik Satie 1892
- La Couturière 1914